Stable, functional chimeric cellobiohydrolase class i enzymes

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to CBH I chimera fusion polypeptides, nucleic acids encoding the polypeptides, and host cells for producing the polypeptides.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/350,412, filed Jun. 1, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

This invention was made with government support under grant no. W911NF-09-D-0001 awarded by the Army Research Office. The government has certain rights in the invention.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to biomolecular engineering and design, and engineered proteins and nucleic acids.

BACKGROUND

The performance of cellulase mixtures in biomass conversion processes depends on many enzyme properties including stability, product inhibition, synergy among different cellulase components, productive binding versus nonproductive adsorption and pH dependence, in addition to the cellulose substrate physical state and composition. Given the multivariate nature of cellulose hydrolysis, it is desirable to have diverse cellulases to choose from in order to optimize enzyme formulations for different applications and feedstocks.

SUMMARY

The disclosure provides a substantially purified chimeric polypeptide comprising at least two domains from at least two different parental cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I) polypeptides, wherein the domains comprise from N- to C-terminus: (segment 1)-(segment 2)-(segment 3)-(segment 4)-(segment 5)-(segment 6)-(segment 7)-(segment 8); wherein: segment 1 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue from about 1 or from about 18 or 19 to about x₁ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 2 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₁ to about x₂ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 3 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₂ to about x₃ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 4 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₃ to about x₄ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 5 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to about amino acid residue x₄ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 6 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₅ to about x₆ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 7 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₆ to about x₇ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); and segment 8 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₇ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); and wherein x₁ is residue 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, or 52 of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, or 8, or residue 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 or 53 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₂ is residue 92, 93, 94 95, 96 or 97 of SEQ ID NO:2 or 10, or residue 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, or 96 of SEQ ID NO:4, 6, or 8; x₃ is residue 127, 128, 129, 130, 131 or 132 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 125, 126, 127, 128, 129 or 130 of SEQ ID NO:4 or 6, or residue 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 or 131 of SEQ ID NO:8, or residue 123, 124, 125, 126, 127 or 128 or SEQ ID NO:10; x₄ is residue 175, 176, 177, 178, 180 or 181 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 173, 174, 175, 176, 177 or 178 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 or 179 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, or 176 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₅ is 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, or 226 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 219, 220, 221, 222, 223 or 224 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 220, 221, 222, 223, 224 or 225 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 or 222 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₆ is residue 268, 269, 270, 271, 272 or 273 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 266, 267, 268, 269, 270 or 271 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 267, 268, 269, 270, 271 or 272 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 264, 265, 266, 267, 268 or 269 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₇ is residue 384, 385, 386, 387, 388 or 389 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 385, 386, 387, 388, 389 or 390 of SEQ ID NO:4, or residue 378, 379, 380, 381, 382 or 383 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 383, 384, 385, 386, 387 or 388 of SEQ ID NO:8 or 10; and x₈ is an amino acid residue corresponding to residue 454, of SEQ ID NO:2, residue 457 of SEQ ID NO:4, residue 458 of SEQ ID NO:6, residue 453 of SEQ ID NO:8, residue 455 of SEQ ID NO:10 or the C-terminus of the polypeptide having the sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:6, SEQ ID NO:8 or SEQ ID NO:10, and wherein the chimeric polypeptide has cellobiohydrolase activity and improved thermostability, pH stability and/or expression compared to a CBH I polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8 or 10. In another embodiment, of the foregoing, segment 1 comprises amino acid residue from about 1 or from about 18 or 19 to about x₁ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 2 is from about amino acid residue x₁ to about x₂ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 3 is from about amino acid residue x₂ to about x₃ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 4 is from about amino acid residue x₃ to about x₄ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 5 is from about amino acid residue x₄ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 6 is from about amino acid residue x₅ to about x₆ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 7 is from about amino acid residue x₆ to about x₇ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; and segment 8 is from about amino acid residue x₇ to about x₈ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions. In yet a further embodiment of any of the foregoing the polypeptide is at least 60-100% identical to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34. In yet a further embodiment of any of the foregoing the polypeptide comprises a leader sequence in operable linkage to the N-terminal amino acid. In yet a further embodiment of any of the foregoing the polypeptide further comprises a C-terminal CBM domain comprising a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:16, 17 and 18. In yet a further embodiment of any of the foregoing the at least two different parental cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I) polypeptides comprise sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. In yet a further embodiment of any of the foregoing polypeptide has a segment structure selected from the group consisting of 55153552, 12153252, 25152252, 12152252, 55152252, 55515555, 55555551, 55515551, 55525555, 55555552, 55525552, 55555155, 55555515, 55555115, 55555255, 55555525, 55555225, 34152252 (SEQ ID NO:19), 55153552 (SEQ ID NO:20), 32153252 (SEQ ID NO:21), 55155552 (SEQ ID NO:22), 22153252 (SEQ ID NO:23), 52152552, (SEQ ID NO:24), 12153252 (SEQ ID NO:25), 45153252 (SEQ ID NO:26), 12153552 (SEQ ID NO:27), 25152252 (SEQ ID NO:28), 13152552 (SEQ ID NO:29), 12152252 (SEQ ID NO:30), 55153252 (SEQ ID NO:31), 55552252 (SEQ ID NO:32), 55152552 (SEQ ID NO:33) and 55152252 (SEQ ID NO:34).

The disclosure also provides a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide as described in any of the foregoing embodiments, a vector containing the polynucleotide, and a host cell (e.g., a plant or fungal cell) comprising the polynucleotide or vector.

The disclosure also provide an enzymatic preparation comprising a polypeptide as described above and elsewhere herein. In yet another embodiment, the enzymatic preparation further comprises a thermostabilized cellobiohydrolase class II enzymatic chimera.

The disclosure also provides a method of treating a biomass comprising cellulose, the method comprising contacting the biomass with an enzymatic preparation of the disclosure.

The disclosure also provides a method for generating a polypeptide of claim 1 having improved activity or stability compared to a parent or class of parent polypeptides, comprising: identifying a plurality (P) of evolutionary, structurally or evolutionary and structurally related polypeptides; selecting a set of crossover locations comprising N peptide segments in at least a first polypeptide and at least a second polypeptide of the plurality of related polypeptides; selecting a parent from the plurality of evolutionary, structurally or evolutionary and structurally related polypeptides having stable functional expression; generating a plurality of chimeras comprising N−1 peptide segments from the parent and one heterologous peptide segment from one other polypeptide from the plurality of evolutionary, structurally or evolutionary and structurally related polypeptides; identifying improved chimeras having increased activity or stability and identifying the heterologous peptide segment as activity/stability-associated peptide segments in the improved monomeras; generating a sample set (xP″) of recombined, recombinant proteins comprising an activity/stability-associated peptide segments from each of the at least first polypeptide and second polypeptide, wherein x<1; measuring stability of the sample set of expressed-folded recombined, recombinant proteins; generating a plurality of chimera polypeptides comprising one or more activity/stability-associated peptide segments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1A-B shows a three dimensional structure and recombination block diagram of a CBH I polypeptide. (A) CBH I catalytic domain three-dimensional structure. Disulfide-bonded Cys residues are denoted by spheres connected by black lines. (B) CBH I recombination block divisions and secondary structure diagram. Interblock disulfide bonds are denoted by maroon lines, intrablock disulfides by light blue lines, block divisions by black arrows. Residue numbering for T. emersonii CBH I.

FIG. 2 shows total secreted CBH I MUL-hydrolyzing activity for parent CBH Is and 32 monomeras. Monomeras contain single block substitutions from parents 1-4 into parent 5 (from T. emersonii). Total secreted CBH I MUL-hydrolyzing activity for T. emersonii CBH I denoted by pink bar. Yeast secretion culture supernatants were incubated with 300 μM soluble, fluorescent MUL substrate for 30 minutes at 45° C. Mean of single activity measurements for three independent T. emersonii secretion cultures is 2.3×10⁻⁴ mol MUL/(L·s), standard deviation is 3.0×10-5 mol MUL/(L·s). All other values represent single cultures and measurements. Black line at bottom of figure denotes threshold activity value of 1.6×10⁻⁵ mol MUL/(L·s) for T₅₀ measurement.

FIG. 3 shows changes in T₅₀ values (° C.) relative to T. emersonii (T₅₀=62.9+/−0.3° C.) parent for 28 CBH I monomeras. Monomeras contain single block substitutions from parents 1-4 into parent 5 (from T. emersonii). Error bars for monomeras represent extreme values of two duplicate measurements. Error bars for parents represent standard deviations for between 3 and 8 replicates. T₅₀ values for respective C. thermophilum and T. aurantiacus parent CBH Is are 59.9+/−0.3° C. and 62.2+/−0.4° C. H. jecorina and A. thermophilum parent CBH Is were not secreted.

FIG. 4 shows T₅₀ values, total yeast secreted activity (mol MUL/(L·s)×10⁵) and block sequences for parent CBH Is. T₅₀ error bars for monomeras represent extreme values of two duplicate measurements, error bars for parents represent standard deviations for between 3 and 8 replicates. Total secreted activity values [mol MUL/(L·s)] are a single measurement for a single culture, with the exception of parent 5, T. emersonii, which has mean and standard deviation total yeast secreted activity of (2.3+/−0.3)×10⁻⁴ mol MUL/(L·s) for single measurements of three independent cultures. Secretion levels for parent 3 (H. jecorina) and parent 4, (A. thermophilum), are below the threshold for T₅₀ measurement.

FIG. 5 shows normalized high temperature solid cellulose hydrolysis activity for affinity-isolated CBH I parents and chimeras. Values presented are activity at given temperature relative to activity at 50° C. Reactions were carried out for 16 hours in 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8, with 60 mg/ml, solid cellulose and 14.6 μg/ml, affinity-isolated CBH I. Error bars denote standard deviations for three replicates. *5 denotes block 7 from parent 5 with stabilizing subblock C insertion.

FIG. 6 shows total yeast secreted activity toward solid cellulose for CBH I parents and chimeras. Yeast culture supernatant was incubated with microcrystalline cellulose in 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8, for 1 hour at 4° C. to bind CBH I. Cellulose was subsequently washed and hydrolysis allowed to proceed for 90 minutes at 37° C. Error bars represent standard deviations for three replicates. *5 denotes block 7 from parent 5 with stabilizing subblock C insertion.

FIG. 7 shows ClustalW multiple sequence alignment of CBH I parent catalytic domains (SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8, 10, respectively), block boundaries denoted by black lines.

FIG. 8 shows SDS-PAGE analysis of CBH I parent YPD yeast culture secretion supernatants. Primary T. emersonii CBH I band appears at ˜62 kDa and is encompassed by green rectangle. Increase in molecular mass relative to the amino acid molecular mass of ˜53 kDa can be accounted for by an expected additional 8-10 kDa from N-linked and O-linked glycosylation. Smearing at molecular masses above ˜62 kDa may be due to glycosylation heterogeneity. Blue numbers denote CBH I supernatant activity, relative to T. emersonii CBH I, toward MUL. Red numbers denote T₅₀ values for the 3 CBH I parents whose secretion is sufficient for thermostability measurement.

FIG. 9 shows total secreted CBH I MUL activity versus number of broken contacts (E) for CBH I monomeras. Block 7 monomera data points are circled.

FIG. 10 shows specific activity toward MUL [(mol MUL/(L·μg CBHI·s)×10⁴] for Ni²⁺ affinity-isolated CBH I parents and chimeras. Reaction carried out for 30 minutes in 50 mM sodium acetate with 300 μM MUL and 29.2 μg/mL affinity-isolated CBH I. *5 denotes block 7 from parent 5 with stabilizing subblock C insertion.

FIG. 11 shows an alignment of B7P2 (T. auran) and B7P5 (T. emer) sequences. Subblocks enclosed in red boxes. Subblock C begins at position 60 and continues into second line of alignment.

FIG. 12 shows SDS PAGE analyses of Ni²⁺ affinity-isolated CBH I parent and chimera samples. All samples loaded at 1.5 μg protein per lane. Sample lanes: 1-Parent 5, 2-Parent 1, 5-121522*52 4-551535*52, 5-551522*52, 6-251522*52, 7-121522*52. Parent 2 affinity isolated sample (not included in gel) protein concentration is too low for Coomassie blue visualization. Parent 1 expected molecular weight is greater than parent 5 and chimeras due to presence of C. thermophilum linker and CBM rather than T. emersonii linker and CBM. *5 denotes block 7 from parent 5 with stabilizing subblock C insertion.

FIG. 13 shows specific activity versus temperature for affinity-isolated CBH I parents and chimeras. Reaction carried out for 16 hours in 50 mM sodium acetate with 60 mg/mL solid cellulose and 14.6 μg/mL affinity-isolated CBH I. Error bars denote standard deviations for three replicates. *5 denotes block 7 from parent 5 with stabilizing subblock C insertion.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “and,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a domain” includes a plurality of such domains and reference to “the protein” includes reference to one or more proteins, and so forth.

Also, the use of “or” means “and/or” unless stated otherwise. Similarly, “comprise,” “comprises,” “comprising” “include,” “includes,” and “including” are interchangeable and not intended to be limiting.

It is to be further understood that where descriptions of various embodiments use the term “comprising,” those skilled in the art would understand that in some specific instances, an embodiment can be alternatively described using language “consisting essentially of” or “consisting of.”

Although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice of the disclosed methods and compositions, the exemplary methods, devices and materials are described herein.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood to one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Thus, as used throughout the instant application, the following terms shall have the following meanings.

Given the demonstrated utility of SCHEMA and the monomera block screening approach for creating new thermostable enzymes, it is instructive to compare and contrast this strategy with other methods for improving enzyme thermostability. Consensus mutagenesis is possibly the most broadly used enzyme thermostabilization strategy that does not employ high throughput screening. Consensus mutagenesis is based on aligning a large, e.g., dozens or hundreds, number of related enzyme sequences and identifying residues that appear with high frequency at a given position as being potentially stabilizing. Changing the residue identity from a low frequency to a higher frequency amino acid at a given position is then predicted to improve the thermostability of the enzyme into which such a substitution is made.

Despite the successful use of consensus mutagenesis to predict single residue substitutions that improve enzyme thermostability, the need for a large number of phylogenetically diverse sequences to ensure prediction accuracy is a considerable limitation. Successful applications of consensus mutagenesis have incorporated dozens, if not hundreds, of enzyme homolog sequences. While the CAZy database (see, the worldwide web at cazy.org) contains more than forty CBH I or CBH I-related gene sequences that could be used in applying consensus mutagenesis to CBH I stabilization, there are many enzyme classes for which such a large set of known sequences is not available. Furthermore, even when many sequences are available, the ability to make accurate predictions of stabilizing residues is limited by the fact that the enzymes have evolved from common ancestors. Evolution from a small starting pool biases residue frequencies in the full homolog set toward amino acids appearing in the parental sequences, which confounds any stabilizing role that amino acid might have. Given that SCHEMA recombination requires only the sequences of the parent enzymes and a crystal structure for either a parent enzyme or homolog, the monomera block screening approach we have described can be a useful alternative to consensus mutagenesis for improving stability.

This demonstration of enzyme stabilization by SCHEMA recombination has been made in the context of industrially relevant fungal CBH Is, which are the principal components of cellulase mixtures used in large-scale biomass conversion processes. These enzymes are notoriously difficult to express in a heterologous host and few protein engineering efforts have led to improved enzymes, despite their industrial importance. The most thermostable CBH I described to date is a variant of T. emersonii, secreted from a recombinant S. cerevisiae host that contains three additional, rationally-designed disulfide bonds, G4C-A72C, N54C-P191C and T243C-A375C. The single G4C-A72C engineered disulfide T. emersonii catalytic domain used as a SCHEMA recombination parent is provided herein. The respective T_(m) values of the single- and triple-disulfide-bond variants are reported to be 80° C. and 84° C., as measured by circular dichroism (CD), and their half-lives at 70° C. are reported to be 270 and 320 min in the absence of substrate. These numbers for the G4C-A72C mutant do not align with the observed T₅₀ value of 62.9+/−0.3° C. for the T. emersonii CBH I parent in yeast secretion culture supernatant and also imply thermostability much greater than what we observe in solid substrate hydrolysis assays, where the T. emersonii parent is inactive at temperatures above 65° C.

The high cost of the fungal cellulase mixtures that are commonly employed in biomass-to-biofuel conversion processes is one of the major limitations to achieving economically viable production of transportation fuel from inedible plant matter. The operating costs of cellulase treatments can be reduced by improving the thermostability of these enzyme mixtures. Cellulase operating lifetime increases with thermostability, allowing thermostable cellulases to hydrolyze more cellulose per unit enzyme than their less stable counterparts throughout the course of biomass degradation. Thermostable cellulases can also operate at higher temperatures and derive a benefit from higher specific activities. This increased hydrolysis reduces the enzyme loading needed to convert cellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars. In addition to stability, properties such as specific activity, pH dependence, product inhibition and productive versus nonproductive adsorption on solid substrate surfaces all contribute to the overall performance of a cellulase mixture.

Class I cellobiohydrolases (CBH Is or family 7 glycosyl hydrolases) are the principal components of industrial cellulase mixtures and account for approximately 60 wt % of the cellulases secreted by the prevalent commercial cellulase production host, the filamentous fungus Hypocrea jecorina (T. reesei). As such, CBH I's have been the subject of multiple enzyme engineering efforts aimed primarily at improving CBH I thermostability. Both high throughput screening (HTS) of CBH I random mutant libraries and rational disulfide bond engineering have been employed to create stable CBH I variants. The applicability of HTS is limited to CBH I's that are expressed by a suitable heterologous host at levels sufficient to enable library characterization. The applicability of disulfide bond engineering is limited to CBH I's for which a crystal structure exists. Neither of these approaches generate the CBH I gene sequence diversity that could lead to improvements in the suite of enzyme properties enumerated above. The disclosure describes a method for engineering cellulases (and other proteins) that reliably improves thermostability while simultaneously retaining function and providing a high level of sequence diversity and also provides such compositions and engineered polypeptides.

The majority of biomass conversion processes use mixtures of fungal cellulases (primarily cellulobiohydrolase class II (CBH II), cellobiohydrolase class I (CBH I), endoglucanases and β-glucosidase) to achieve high levels of cellulose hydrolysis. Generating a diverse group of thermostable CBH I enzyme chimeras is the first step in building an inventory of stable, highly active cellulases from which enzyme mixtures can be formulated and optimized for specific applications and feedstocks. These chimeric CBH I's of the disclosure can be used in combination with other cellobiohydrolases (e.g., wild-type and chimeric CBH II's, see, e.g., PCT/US2010/027248 and PCT/US2010/30133, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference).

SCHEMA has been used previously to create families of hundreds of active CBH II, β-lactamase and cytochrome P450 enzyme chimeras. SCHEMA uses protein structure data to define boundaries of contiguous amino acid “blocks” which minimize <E>, the library average number of amino acid side chain contacts that are broken when the blocks are swapped among different parents. It has been shown that the probability that a β-lactamase chimera was folded and active was inversely related to the value of E for that sequence. The RASPP (Recombination as Shortest Path Problem) algorithm was used to identify the block boundaries that minimized <E> relative to the library average number of mutations, <m>. More than 20% of the ˜500 unique chimeras characterized from a β-lactamase collection comprised of 8 blocks from 3 parents (3⁸=6,561 possible sequences) were catalytically active. A similar approach produced a 3-parent, 8-block cytochrome P450 chimera family containing more than 2,300 novel, catalytically active enzymes. Chimeras from these two collections were characterized by high numbers of mutations, 66 and 72 amino acids on average from the closest parent, respectively. SCHEMA/RASPP thus enabled design of chimera families having significant sequence diversity and an appreciable fraction of functional members.

It has also been shown that the thermostabilities of SCHEMA chimeras can be predicted based on sequence-stability data from a small sample of the sequences. Linear regression modeling of thermal inactivation data for 184 cytochrome P450 chimeras showed that SCHEMA blocks made additive contributions to thermostability. More than 300 chimeras were predicted to be thermostable by this model, and all 44 that were tested were more stable than the most stable parent. It was estimated that as few as 35 thermostability measurements could be used to predict the most thermostable chimeras. Furthermore, the thermostable P450 chimeras displayed unique activity and specificity profiles, demonstrating that chimeragenesis can lead to additional useful enzyme properties. The disclosure demonstrates that SCHEMA recombination of CBH II enzymes can generate chimeric cellulases that are active on phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC) at high temperatures, over extended periods of time, and broad ranges of pH.

The total number of chimeras that can be made by swapping sequence blocks is p^(b), where p is the number of parents and b is the number of blocks into which each parent is divided. Including more parent enzymes in the construction of a SCHEMA recombination family generates many more potential unique chimeras and enables inclusion of more potentially-beneficial mutations. Whereas 6,561 chimeras can be made by recombination of 3 parents and 8 blocks, adding two more parent sequences increases the family size to more than 390,000. The number of mutations explored by recombination depends on the parent sequence identities. For the CBH Is, relative to the T. emersonii background parent (parent 5 (P5)), parent 1 (C. thermophilum) contains 151 mutations, parent 2 (T. aurantiacus) adds 43 unique mutations, parent 3 (H. jecorina) brings 100 more unique mutations, and parent 4 (A. thermophilum) increases the mutation count by 52, bringing the total number of mutations that can be searched by recombination to 336.

The drawback to working with a larger chimera family is that more chimeras must be characterized in order to build a predictive stability model. It can be costly if a significant proportion of the sample chimeras do not express in functional form. The disclosure demonstrates that desirable sequences can be identified efficiently with a monomera screening approach, in which individual blocks substitutions are made in the background of a stable, well-expressed parent. Relative to a chimera sample set chosen to test interactions among blocks, i.e. the importance of the background sequence, this strategy reduces the number of nonproductive sequences that are constructed.

Stability measurements made for the background parent and 28 secreted members of a 32-member CBH I monomera set allowed stability contributions to be estimated for 36 of the 40 blocks comprising the 5-parent, 8-block CBH I chimera family. Assuming no nonlinear stability effects among blocks and that block 7, parent 5 (B7P5) is the most stabilizing block at position 7 in all chimera backgrounds, these measurements allow prediction of the most stable of 5⁸=390,625 CBH I chimera sequences. This represents an increase in screening efficiency relative to the prior CBH II recombination work but rests on the assumption that the blocks contribute additively to overall stability and does not test the linear model.

The disclosure demonstrates the robustness of SCHEMA recombination for creating active chimeras from parent enzymes that feature a large number of disulfide bonds. SCHEMA seeks to define block boundaries so that interactions among blocks are similar to those that occur in the parent enzymes. Block boundaries, however, are defined without regard for disulfide bonds. As such, the presence of 10 disulfide bonds, 5 of which link Cys residues lying in different blocks, poses a new test of SCHEMA's ability to generate chimera family designs that lead to a large fraction of active members. As shown by 28 of 32 monomeras and 16 of 16 predicted stable chimeras being secreted as active cellulases, SCHEMA recombination can generate a large fraction of active chimeras even when the protein is cross-linked by a large number of disulfide bonds. These results suggest that SCHEMA recombination conserves the appropriate position and orientation of Cys residues for disulfide formation.

Linear block stability contributions that allow quantitative prediction of chimera thermostability stand alongside the high sequence diversity and large fraction of active members as useful features of SCHEMA chimera families. Block 7 is the largest block, with 116 residues that comprise 27% of the CBH I catalytic domain. The reduced ability to make substitutions at this position markedly reduces the total number of mutations encompassed by the monomera sample set screen. In particular, 119 of the 336 total unique mutations in the 32 monomera sample set are contained within block 7. High E values do not necessarily predict the resistance of block 7 to recombination. To test this further subblocks of block 7 were generated and recombined. A subblock that increases the stability of not only the corresponding monomera but also all five of the stable chimeras into which it is substituted was identified and shows that subdividing a recombination block can generate further stability improvements.

This five-parent SCHEMA recombination has generated a set of thermostable CBH I chimeras that are a key addition to the previously described thermostable CBH II chimeras^(7,8) in the assembly of an inventory of thermostable fungal cellulases from which application-specific mixtures can be formulated. Additionally, this work shows that the monomera screening strategy makes tractable the prediction of desirable chimera sequences within large families, thus increasing the utility of SCHEMA for exploring large swaths of enzyme sequence space. Furthermore, the observed improvements in chimera properties and the high fraction of active recombined enzymes shows that SCHEMA recombination can be applied to enzymes that contain extensive posttranslational modifications. As such, these results are relevant not only to enzyme engineering in the context of industrial biomass conversion processes but also for engineering other proteins for which high sequence diversity is desirable and/or whose properties are not easily improved by mutagenesis and high throughput screening.

Using the methods described herein a number of chimeric polypeptides having cellobiohydrolases activity were generated having improved characteristics compared to the wild-type parental CBH I proteins.

A diverse CBH I chimera sample set corresponding to an 8-block, 5-parent family containing more than 390,000 unique sequences was used. In order to predict the most stable members of this chimera family while still sampling only a limited set of chimeric genes (˜30-40), experience was used to simplify the sample set design and maximize the number of sample genes expected to be secreted in functional form. In particular, it was hypothesized that SCHEMA blocks would make additive or at least cumulative contributions to chimera stability. It was further assumed that using a highly expressed parent as the background into which single blocks from homologous parents are substituted would increase the probability that the sample sequence will be secreted and functional. Thus a set of CBH I “monomeras”, chimeras was constructed which contain a single block substitution, in the background of a well-expressed parent enzyme. This was an efficient approach for rapidly screening homologous enzymes for stabilizing blocks of sequence. The task of predicting the most stable chimeras is reduced to making stability measurements for the parent enzyme and 32 monomeras made in that background. Diverse thermostable chimeras can then be assembled from stabilizing and neutral blocks.

“Amino acid” is a molecule having the structure wherein a central carbon atom is linked to a hydrogen atom, a carboxylic acid group (the carbon atom of which is referred to herein as a “carboxyl carbon atom”), an amino group (the nitrogen atom of which is referred to herein as an “amino nitrogen atom”), and a side chain group, R. When incorporated into a peptide, polypeptide, or protein, an amino acid loses one or more atoms of its amino acid carboxylic groups in the dehydration reaction that links one amino acid to another. As a result, when incorporated into a protein, an amino acid is referred to as an “amino acid residue.”

“Protein” or “polypeptide” refers to any polymer of two or more individual amino acids (whether or not naturally occurring) linked via a peptide bond. The term “protein” is understood to include the terms “polypeptide” and “peptide” (which, at times may be used interchangeably herein) within its meaning. In addition, proteins comprising multiple polypeptide subunits (e.g., DNA polymerase III, RNA polymerase II) or other components (for example, an RNA molecule, as occurs in telomerase) will also be understood to be included within the meaning of “protein” as used herein. Similarly, fragments of proteins and polypeptides are also within the scope of the disclosure and may be referred to herein as “proteins.” In one embodiment of the disclosure, a stabilized protein comprises a chimera of two or more parental peptide segments.

A particular amino acid sequence of a given protein (i.e., the polypeptide's “primary structure,” when written from the amino-terminus to carboxy-terminus) is determined by the nucleotide sequence of the coding portion of a mRNA, which is in turn specified by genetic information, typically genomic DNA (including organelle DNA, e.g., mitochondrial or chloroplast DNA). Thus, determining the sequence of a gene assists in predicting the primary sequence of a corresponding polypeptide and more particular the role or activity of the polypeptide or proteins encoded by that gene or polynucleotide sequence.

“Fused,” “operably linked,” and “operably associated” are used interchangeably herein to broadly refer to a chemical or physical coupling of two otherwise distinct domains or peptide segments, wherein each domain or peptide segment when operably linked can provide a functional polypeptide having a desired activity. Domains or peptide segments can be directly linked or connected through peptide linkers such that they are functional or can be fused through other intermediates or chemical bonds. For example, two domains can be part of the same coding sequence, wherein the polynucleotides are in frame such that the polynucleotide when transcribed encodes a single mRNA that when translated comprises both domains as a single polypeptide. Alternatively, both domains can be separately expressed as individual polypeptides and fused to one another using chemical methods. Typically, the coding domains will be linked “in-frame” either directly of separated by a peptide linker and encoded by a single polynucleotide. Various coding sequences for peptide linkers and peptide are known in the art.

“Polynucleotide” or “nucleic acid sequence” refers to a polymeric form of nucleotides. In some instances a polynucleotide refers to a sequence that is not immediately contiguous with either of the coding sequences with which it is immediately contiguous (one on the 5′ end and one on the 3′ end) in the naturally occurring genome of the organism from which it is derived. The term therefore includes, for example, a recombinant DNA which is incorporated into a vector; into an autonomously replicating plasmid or virus; or into the genomic DNA of a prokaryote or eukaryote, or which exists as a separate molecule (e.g., a cDNA) independent of other sequences. The nucleotides of the disclosure can be ribonucleotides, deoxyribonucleotides, or modified forms of either nucleotide. A polynucleotides as used herein refers to, among others, single- and double-stranded DNA, DNA that is a mixture of single- and double-stranded regions, single- and double-stranded RNA, and RNA that is mixture of single- and double-stranded regions, hybrid molecules comprising DNA and RNA that may be single-stranded or, more typically, double-stranded or a mixture of single- and double-stranded regions. The term polynucleotide encompasses genomic DNA or RNA (depending upon the organism, i.e., RNA genome of viruses), as well as mRNA encoded by the genomic DNA, and cDNA.

“Nucleic acid segment,” “oligonucleotide segment” or “polynucleotide segment” refers to a portion of a larger polynucleotide molecule. The polynucleotide segment need not correspond to an encoded functional domain of a protein; however, in some instances the segment will encode a functional domain of a protein. A polynucleotide segment can be about 6 nucleotides or more in length (e.g., 6-20, 20-50, 50-100, 100-200, 200-300, 300-400 or more nucleotides in length). A stability-associated peptide segment can be encoded by a stability-associated polynucleotide segment, wherein the peptide segment promotes stability, function, or folding compared to a polypeptide lacking the peptide segment.

“Chimera” refers to a combination of at least two segments or domains of at least two different parent proteins or polypeptides. As appreciated by one of skill in the art, the segments need not actually come from each of the parents, as it is the particular sequence that is relevant, and not the physical nucleic acids or peptides themselves. For example, a chimeric fungal class I cellobiohydrolases (CBH I cellulases) will have at least two segments from two different parent CBH I polypeptides. The two segments are connected so as to result in a new polypeptide having cellobiohydrolase activity. In other words, a protein will not be a chimera if it has the identical sequence of either one of the full length parents. A chimeric polypeptide can comprise more than two segments from two different parent proteins. For example, there may be 2, 3, 4, 5-10, 10-20, or more parents for each final chimera or library of chimeras. The segment of each parent polypeptide can be very short or very long, the segments can range in length of contiguous amino acids from 1 to about 90%, 95%, 98%, or 99% of the entire length of the protein. In one embodiment, the minimum length is 10 amino acids, but may be 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100 or more amino acids in length. In one embodiment, a single crossover point is defined for two parents. The crossover location defines where one parent's amino acid segment will stop and where the next parent's amino acid segment will start. Thus, a simple chimera would only have one crossover location where the segment before that crossover location would belong to a first parent and the segment after that crossover location would belong to a second parent. In one embodiment, the chimera has more than one crossover location. For example, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11-30, or more crossover locations. How these crossover locations are named and defined are both discussed below. In an embodiment where there are two crossover locations and two parents, there will be a first contiguous segment from a first parent, followed by a second contiguous segment from a second parent, followed by a third contiguous segment from the first parent or yet a different parent. Contiguous is meant to denote that there is nothing of significance interrupting the segments. These contiguous segments are connected to form a contiguous amino acid sequence. For example, a CBH I chimera from C. thermophilium (hereinafter “1”) and T. aurantiacus (hereinafter “2”), with two crossovers at 49 and 94, could have the first 49 amino acids from 1, followed by the next 55 from 2, followed by the remainder of the amino acids from 1, all connected in one contiguous amino acid chain. Alternatively, the CBH I chimera could have the first 49 amino acids from 2, the next 55 from 1 and the remainder followed by 2. As appreciated by one of skill in the art, variants of chimeras exist as well as the exact sequences. Thus, not 100% of each segment need be present in the final chimera if it is a variant chimera. The amount that may be altered, either through additional residues or removal or alteration of residues will be defined as the term variant is defined. Of course, as understood by one of skill in the art, the above discussion applies not only to amino acids but also nucleic acids which encode for the amino acids.

“Conservative amino acid substitution” refers to the interchangeability of residues having similar side chains, and thus typically involves substitution of the amino acid in the polypeptide with amino acids within the same or similar defined class of amino acids. By way of example and not limitation, an amino acid with an aliphatic side chain may be substituted with another aliphatic amino acid, e.g., alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, and methionine; an amino acid with hydroxyl side chain is substituted with another amino acid with a hydroxyl side chain, e.g., serine and threonine; an amino acids having aromatic side chains is substituted with another amino acid having an aromatic side chain, e.g., phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, and histidine; an amino acid with a basic side chain is substituted with another amino acid with a basis side chain, e.g., lysine, arginine, and histidine; an amino acid with an acidic side chain is substituted with another amino acid with an acidic side chain, e.g., aspartic acid or glutamic acid; and a hydrophobic or hydrophilic amino acid is replaced with another hydrophobic or hydrophilic amino acid, respectively.

“Non-conservative substitution” refers to substitution of an amino acid in the polypeptide with an amino acid with significantly differing side chain properties. Non-conservative substitutions may use amino acids between, rather than within, the defined groups and affects (a) the structure of the peptide backbone in the area of the substitution (e.g., proline for glycine) (b) the charge or hydrophobicity, or (c) the bulk of the side chain. By way of example and not limitation, an exemplary non-conservative substitution can be an acidic amino acid substituted with a basic or aliphatic amino acid; an aromatic amino acid substituted with a small amino acid; and a hydrophilic amino acid substituted with a hydrophobic amino acid.

“Isolated polypeptide” refers to a polypeptide which is separated from other contaminants that naturally accompany it, e.g., protein, lipids, and polynucleotides. The term embraces polypeptides which have been removed or purified from their naturally-occurring environment or expression system (e.g., host cell or in vitro synthesis).

“Substantially pure polypeptide” refers to a composition in which the polypeptide species is the predominant species present (i.e., on a molar or weight basis it is more abundant than any other individual macromolecular species in the composition), and is generally a substantially purified composition when the object species comprises at least about 50 percent of the macromolecular species present by mole or % weight. Generally, a substantially pure polypeptide composition will comprise about 60% or more, about 70% or more, about 80% or more, about 90% or more, about 95% or more, and about 98% or more of all macromolecular species by mole or % weight present in the composition. In some embodiments, the object species is purified to essential homogeneity (i.e., contaminant species cannot be detected in the composition by conventional detection methods) wherein the composition consists essentially of a single macromolecular species. Solvent species, small molecules (<500 Daltons), and elemental ion species are not considered macromolecular species.

“Reference sequence” refers to a defined sequence used as a basis for a sequence comparison. A reference sequence may be a subset of a larger sequence, for example, a segment of a full-length gene or polypeptide sequence. Generally, a reference sequence can be at least 20 nucleotide or amino acid residues in length, at least 25 nucleotide or residues in length, at least 50 nucleotides or residues in length, or the full length of the nucleic acid or polypeptide. Since two polynucleotides or polypeptides may each (1) comprise a sequence (i.e., a portion of the complete sequence) that is similar between the two sequences, and (2) may further comprise a sequence that is divergent between the two sequences, sequence comparisons between two (or more) polynucleotides or polypeptides are typically performed by comparing sequences of the two polynucleotides or polypeptides over a “comparison window” to identify and compare local regions of sequence similarity.

“Sequence identity” means that two amino acid sequences are substantially identical (e.g., on an amino acid-by-amino acid basis) over a window of comparison. The term “sequence similarity” refers to similar amino acids that share the same biophysical characteristics. The term “percentage of sequence identity” or “percentage of sequence similarity” is calculated by comparing two optimally aligned sequences over the window of comparison, determining the number of positions at which the identical residues (or similar residues) occur in both polypeptide sequences to yield the number of matched positions, dividing the number of matched positions by the total number of positions in the window of comparison (i.e., the window size), and multiplying the result by 100 to yield the percentage of sequence identity (or percentage of sequence similarity). With regard to polynucleotide sequences, the terms sequence identity and sequence similarity have comparable meaning as described for protein sequences, with the term “percentage of sequence identity” indicating that two polynucleotide sequences are identical (on a nucleotide-by-nucleotide basis) over a window of comparison. As such, a percentage of polynucleotide sequence identity (or percentage of polynucleotide sequence similarity, e.g., for silent substitutions or other substitutions, based upon the analysis algorithm) also can be calculated. Maximum correspondence can be determined by using one of the sequence algorithms described herein (or other algorithms available to those of ordinary skill in the art) or by visual inspection.

As applied to polypeptides, the term substantial identity or substantial similarity means that two peptide sequences, when optimally aligned, such as by the programs BLAST, GAP or BESTFIT using default gap weights or by visual inspection, share sequence identity or sequence similarity. Similarly, as applied in the context of two nucleic acids, the term substantial identity or substantial similarity means that the two nucleic acid sequences, when optimally aligned, such as by the programs BLAST, GAP or BESTFIT using default gap weights (described elsewhere herein) or by visual inspection, share sequence identity or sequence similarity.

One example of an algorithm that is suitable for determining percent sequence identity or sequence similarity is the FASTA algorithm, which is described in Pearson, W. R. & Lipman, D. J., (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:2444. See also, W. R. Pearson, (1996) Methods Enzymology 266:227-258. Preferred parameters used in a FASTA alignment of DNA sequences to calculate percent identity or percent similarity are optimized, BL50 Matrix 15: −5, k-tuple=2; joining penalty=40, optimization=28; gap penalty−12, gap length penalty=−2; and width=16.

Another example of a useful algorithm is PILEUP. PILEUP creates a multiple sequence alignment from a group of related sequences using progressive, pairwise alignments to show relationship and percent sequence identity or percent sequence similarity. It also plots a tree or dendogram showing the clustering relationships used to create the alignment. PILEUP uses a simplification of the progressive alignment method of Feng & Doolittle, (1987) J. Mol. Evol. 35:351-360. The method used is similar to the method described by Higgins & Sharp, CABIOS 5:151-153, 1989. The program can align up to 300 sequences, each of a maximum length of 5,000 nucleotides or amino acids. The multiple alignment procedure begins with the pairwise alignment of the two most similar sequences, producing a cluster of two aligned sequences. This cluster is then aligned to the next most related sequence or cluster of aligned sequences. Two clusters of sequences are aligned by a simple extension of the pairwise alignment of two individual sequences. The final alignment is achieved by a series of progressive, pairwise alignments. The program is run by designating specific sequences and their amino acid or nucleotide coordinates for regions of sequence comparison and by designating the program parameters. Using PILEUP, a reference sequence is compared to other test sequences to determine the percent sequence identity (or percent sequence similarity) relationship using the following parameters: default gap weight (3.00), default gap length weight (0.10), and weighted end gaps. PILEUP can be obtained from the GCG sequence analysis software package, e.g., version 7.0 (Devereaux et al., (1984) Nuc. Acids Res. 12:387-395).

Another example of an algorithm that is suitable for multiple DNA and amino acid sequence alignments is the CLUSTALW program (Thompson, J. D. et al., (1994) Nuc. Acids Res. 22:4673-4680). CLUSTALW performs multiple pairwise comparisons between groups of sequences and assembles them into a multiple alignment based on sequence identity. Gap open and Gap extension penalties were 10 and 0.05 respectively. For amino acid alignments, the BLOSUM algorithm can be used as a protein weight matrix (Henikoff and Henikoff, (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:10915-10919).

“Functional” refers to a polypeptide which possesses either the native biological activity of the naturally-produced proteins of its type, or any specific desired activity, for example as judged by its ability to bind to ligand molecules or carry out an enzymatic reaction.

The disclosure describes a directed SCHEMA recombination library to generate cellobiohydrolase enzymes based on a particularly members of this enzyme family, and more particularly cellobiohydrolase I enzymes (e.g., C. thermophilum is parent “1” (SEQ ID NO:2), T. aurantiacus is parent “2” (SEQ ID NO:4), H. jecorina is parent “3” (SEQ ID NO:6), A. thermophilum is parent “4” (SEQ ID NO:8) and T. emersonii is parent “5” (SEQ ID NO:10)). SCHEMA is a computational based method for predicting which fragments of related proteins can be recombined without affecting the structural integrity of the protein (see, e.g., Meyer et al., (2003) Protein Sci., 12:1686-1693). This computational approached identified seven recombination points in the CBH I parental proteins, thereby allowing the formation of a library of CBH I chimera polypeptides, where each polypeptide comprises, for example, from two to eight segments. Chimeras with higher stability are identifiable by determining the additive contribution of each segment to the overall stability, either by use of linear regression of sequence-stability data, or by reliance on consensus analysis of the MSAs of folded versus unfolded proteins. SCHEMA recombination ensures that the chimeras retain biological function and exhibit high sequence diversity by conserving important functional residues while exchanging tolerant ones.

Thus, as illustrated by various embodiments herein, the disclosure provides CBH I polypeptides comprising a chimera of parental domains. In some embodiments, the polypeptide comprises a chimera having a plurality of domains from N- to C-terminus from different parental CBH II proteins: (segment 1)-(segment 2)-(segment 3)-(segment 4)-(segment 5)-(segment 6)-(segment 7)-(segment 8);

wherein segment 1 comprises amino acid residue from about 1 or from about 18 or 19 to about x₁ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 2 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₁ to about x₂ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 3 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₂ to about x₃ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 4 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₃ to about x₄ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 5 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to about amino acid residue x₄ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 6 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₅ to about x₆ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 7 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₆ to about x₇ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); and segment 8 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₇ to about x₈ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”);

wherein x₁ is residue 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, or 52 of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, or 8, or residue 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 or 53 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₂ is residue 92, 93, 94 95, 96 or 97 of SEQ ID NO:2 or 10, or residue 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, or 96 of SEQ ID NO:4, 6, or 8; x₃ is residue 127, 128, 129, 130, 131 or 132 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 125, 126, 127, 128, 129 or 130 of SEQ ID NO:4 or 6, or residue 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 or 131 of SEQ ID NO:8, or residue 123, 124, 125, 126, 127 or 128 or SEQ ID NO:10; x₄ is residue 175, 176, 177, 178, 180 or 181 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 173, 174, 175, 176, 177 or 178 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 or 179 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, or 176 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₅ is 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, or 226 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 219, 220, 221, 222, 223 or 224 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 220, 221, 222, 223, 224 or 225 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 or 222 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₆ is residue 268, 269, 270, 271, 272 or 273 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 266, 267, 268, 269, 270 or 271 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 267, 268, 269, 270, 271 or 272 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 264, 265, 266, 267, 268 or 269 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₇ is residue 384, 385, 386, 387, 388 or 389 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 385, 386, 387, 388, 389 or 390 of SEQ ID NO:4, or residue 378, 379, 380, 381, 382 or 383 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 383, 384, 385, 386, 387 or 388 of SEQ ID NO:8 or 10; and x₈ is an amino acid residue corresponding to residue 454, of SEQ ID NO:2, residue 457 of SEQ ID NO:4, residue 458 of SEQ ID NO:6, residue 453 of SEQ ID NO:8, residue 455 of SEQ ID NO:10 or the C-terminus of the polypeptide having the sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:6, SEQ ID NO:8 or SEQ ID NO:10.

Using the foregoing domain references a number of chimeric structure were generated as set forth in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Total yeast-secreted MUL activity and T₅₀ values for disulfide-paired CBH I chimeras and underlying monomeras. T₅₀ value error bars represent extremes of 2 duplicate measurements, MUL activity values for a single measurement of a single culture, 300 μM MUL, 30-minute incubation at 45° C. NS indicates insufficient secretion for T₅₀ measurement. Total Secreted Activity (mol MUL/ Chimera (L · s)) × 10⁵ T₅₀ (° C.) 55515555 2.6 61.0 +/− 0.1 55555551 11.8 61.9 +/− 0.2 55515551 6.3 58.2 +/− 0.3 55525555 6.7 62.4 +/− 0.2 55555552 21.8 64.6 +/− 0.2 55525552 11.0 63.1 +/− 0.1 55555155 8.6 60.5 +/− 0.0 55555515 0.3 NS 55555115 0.1 NS 55555255 14.1 63.2 +/− 0.5 55555525 1.0 NS 55555225 0.2 NS Referring to the table above, each digit refers to a domain/segment of a chimeric CBH I polypeptide. The number denotes the parental strand of the domain/segment. For example, a chimeric CBH I polypeptide having the sequence 12111131, indicates that the polypeptide comprises a sequence from the N-terminus to the C-terminus of: amino acids from about 1 to x₁ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”) linked to amino acids from about x₁ to x₂ of SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”) linked to amino acids from about x₂ to about x₃ of SEQ ID NO:2 linked to amino acids from about x₃ to about x₄ of SEQ ID NO:2 linked to amino acids from about x₄ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 linked to amino acids from about x₅ to about x₆ of SEQ ID NO:2 linked to amino acids from about x₆ to x₇ of SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”) linked to amino acids from about x₇ to x₈ (e.g., the C-terminus) of SEQ ID NO:2.

TABLE 2 Total yeast-secreted MUL activity (mol MUL/(L · s)) × 10⁵ and T₅₀ values for B7P5 chimeras and corresponding B7P*5 substituted chimeras. T₅₀ value error bars represent extremes of 2 duplicate measurements, MUL activity values for a single measurement of a single culture, 300 μM MUL, 30-minute incubation at 45° C. B7P5 Total B7P*5 Total Chimera Secreted Activity T₅₀ (° C.) Chimera Secreted Activity T₅₀ (° C.) 55153552 33.2 64.3 +/− 0.0 551535*52 42.2 65.7 +/− 0.2 12153252 6.4 64.7 +/− 0.2 121532*52 10.6 66.0 +/− 0.0 25152252 22.2 65.0 +/− 0.1 251522*52 28.7 66.8 +/− 0.1 12152252 10.2 65.3 +/− 0.1 121522*52 17.7 66.9 +/− 0.1 55152252 19.6 66.3 +/− 1.0 551522*52 34.0 66.9 +/− 0.1

In some embodiments, the polypeptide has improved thermostability compared to a wild-type polypeptide of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8 or 10. The activity of the polypeptide can be measured with any one or combination of substrates as described in the examples. As will be apparent to the skilled artisan, other compounds within the class of compounds exemplified by those discussed in the examples can be tested and used.

In some embodiments, the polypeptide can comprise various changes to the amino acid sequence with respect to a reference sequence. The changes can be a substitution, deletion, or insertion of one or more amino acids. Where the change is a substitution, the change can be a conservative or a non-conservative substitution. Accordingly a chimera may comprise a combination of conservative and non-conservative substitutions.

Thus, in some embodiments, the polypeptides can comprise a general structure from N-terminus to C-terminus: (segment 1)-(segment 2)-(segment 3)-(segment 4)-(segment 5)-(segment 6)-(segment 7)-(segment 8),

wherein segment 1 comprises amino acid residue from about 1 or from about 18 or 19 to about x₁ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 2 is from about amino acid residue x₁ to about x₂ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 3 is from about amino acid residue x₂ to about x₃ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 4 is from about amino acid residue x₃ to about x₄ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 5 is from about amino acid residue x₄ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 6 is from about amino acid residue x₅ to about x₆ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 7 is from about amino acid residue x₆ to about x₇ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; and segment 8 is from about amino acid residue x₇ to about x₈ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions;

wherein x₁ is residue 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, or 52 of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, or 8, or residue 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 or 53 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₂ is residue 92, 93, 94 95, 96 or 97 of SEQ ID NO:2 or 10, or residue 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, or 96 of SEQ ID NO:4, 6, or 8; x₃ is residue 127, 128, 129, 130, 131 or 132 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 125, 126, 127, 128, 129 or 130 of SEQ ID NO:4 or 6, or residue 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 or 131 of SEQ ID NO:8, or residue 123, 124, 125, 126, 127 or 128 or SEQ ID NO:10; x₄ is residue 175, 176, 177, 178, 180 or 181 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 173, 174, 175, 176, 177 or 178 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 or 179 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, or 176 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₅ is 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, or 226 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 219, 220, 221, 222, 223 or 224 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 220, 221, 222, 223, 224 or 225 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 or 222 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₆ is residue 268, 269, 270, 271, 272 or 273 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 266, 267, 268, 269, 270 or 271 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 267, 268, 269, 270, 271 or 272 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 264, 265, 266, 267, 268 or 269 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₇ is residue 384, 385, 386, 387, 388 or 389 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 385, 386, 387, 388, 389 or 390 of SEQ ID NO:4, or residue 378, 379, 380, 381, 382 or 383 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 383, 384, 385, 386, 387 or 388 of SEQ ID NO:8 or 10; and x₈ is an amino acid residue corresponding to residue 454, of SEQ ID NO:2, residue 457 of SEQ ID NO:4, residue 458 of SEQ ID NO:6, residue 453 of SEQ ID NO:8, residue 455 of SEQ ID NO:10 or the C-terminus of the polypeptide having the sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:6, SEQ ID NO:8 or SEQ ID NO:10, wherein the chimeric polypeptide has cellobiohydrolase activity and improved thermostability and/or pH stability compared to a CBH I polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8 or 10.

In some embodiments, the number of substitutions can be 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, or more amino acid substitutions (e.g., 10-20, 21-30, 31-40 and the like amino acid substitutions).

In some embodiments, the functional chimera polypeptides can have cellobiohydrolase activity along with increased thermostability, such as for a defined substrate discussed in the Examples, and also have a level of amino acid sequence identity to a reference cellobiohydrolase, or segments thereof. The reference enzyme or segment, can be that of a wild-type (e.g., naturally occurring) or an engineered enzyme.

In some embodiments, each segment of the chimeric polypeptide can have at least 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or more sequence identity as compared to the reference segment indicated for each of the (segment 1), (segment 2), (segment 3), (segment 4)-(segment 5), (segment 6), (segment 7), and (segment 8) of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:6, SEQ ID NO:8, or SEQ ID NO:10.

In some embodiments, the polypeptide variants can have improved thermostability compared to the enzyme activity of the wild-type polypeptide of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8 or 10.

The chimeric enzymes described herein may be prepared in various forms, such as lysates, crude extracts, or isolated preparations. The polypeptides can be dissolved in suitable solutions; formulated as powders, such as an acetone powder (with or without stabilizers); or be prepared as lyophilizates. In some embodiments, the polypeptide can be an isolated polypeptide.

In some embodiments, the polypeptides can be in the form of arrays. The enzymes may be in a soluble form, for example, as solutions in the wells of microtitre plates, or immobilized onto a substrate. The substrate can be a solid substrate or a porous substrate (e.g., membrane), which can be composed of organic polymers such as polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyfluoroethylene, polyethyleneoxy, and polyacrylamide, as well as co-polymers and grafts thereof. A solid support can also be inorganic, such as glass, silica, controlled pore glass (CPG), reverse phase silica or metal, such as gold or platinum. The configuration of a substrate can be in the form of beads, spheres, particles, granules, a gel, a membrane or a surface. Surfaces can be planar, substantially planar, or non-planar. Solid supports can be porous or non-porous, and can have swelling or non-swelling characteristics. A solid support can be configured in the form of a well, depression, or other container, vessel, feature, or location. A plurality of supports can be configured on an array at various locations, addressable for robotic delivery of reagents, or by detection methods and/or instruments.

The disclosure also provides polynucleotides encoding the engineered CBH I polypeptides disclosed herein. The polynucleotides may be operatively linked to one or more heterologous regulatory or control sequences that control gene expression to create a recombinant polynucleotide capable of expressing the polypeptide. Expression constructs containing a heterologous polynucleotide encoding the CBH I chimera can be introduced into appropriate host cells to express the polypeptide.

Given the knowledge of specific sequences of the CBH II chimera enzymes (e.g., the segment structure of the chimeric CBH II), the polynucleotide sequences will be apparent form the amino acid sequence of the engineered CBH II chimera enzymes to one of skill in the art and with reference to the polypeptide sequences and nucleic acid sequence described herein. The knowledge of the codons corresponding to various amino acids coupled with the knowledge of the amino acid sequence of the polypeptides allows those skilled in the art to make different polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure contemplates each and every possible variation of the polynucleotides that could be made by selecting combinations based on possible codon choices, and all such variations are to be considered specifically disclosed for any of the polypeptides described herein.

In some embodiments, the polynucleotides encode the polypeptides described herein but have about 80% or more sequence identity, about 85% or more sequence identity, about 90% or more sequence identity, about 91% or more sequence identity, about 92% or more sequence identity, about 93% or more sequence identity, about 94% or more sequence identity, about 95% or more sequence identity, about 96% or more sequence identity, about 97% or more sequence identity, about 98% or more sequence identity, or about 99% or more sequence identity at the nucleotide level to a reference polynucleotide encoding the CBH I chimera polypeptides.

In some embodiments, the isolated polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides may be manipulated in a variety of ways to provide for expression of the polypeptide. Manipulation of the isolated polynucleotide prior to its insertion into a vector may be desirable or necessary depending on the expression vector. The techniques for modifying polynucleotides and nucleic acid sequences utilizing recombinant DNA methods are well known in the art. Guidance is provided in Sambrook et al., 2001, Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 3rd Ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; and Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Ausubel. F. ed., Greene Pub. Associates, 1998, updates to 2007.

In some embodiments, the polynucleotides are operatively linked to control sequences for the expression of the polynucleotides and/or polypeptides. In some embodiments, the control sequence may be an appropriate promoter sequence, which can be obtained from genes encoding extracellular or intracellular polypeptides, either homologous or heterologous to the host cell. For bacterial host cells, suitable promoters for directing transcription of the nucleic acid constructs of the present disclosure, include the promoters obtained from the E. coli lac operon, Bacillus subtilis xylA and xylB genes, Bacillus megatarium xylose utilization genes (e.g., Rygus et al., (1991) Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 35:594-599; Meinhardt et al., (1989) Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 30:343-350), prokaryotic beta-lactamase gene (VIIIa-Kamaroff et al., (1978) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75: 3727-3731), as well as the tac promoter (DeBoer et al., (1983) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80: 21-25). Various suitable promoters are described in “Useful proteins from recombinant bacteria” in Scientific American, 1980, 242:74-94; and in Sambrook et al., supra.

In some embodiments, the control sequence may also be a suitable transcription terminator sequence, a sequence recognized by a host cell to terminate transcription. The terminator sequence is operably linked to the 3′ terminus of the nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide. Any terminator which is functional in the host cell of choice may be used.

In some embodiments, the control sequence may also be a suitable leader sequence, a nontranslated region of an mRNA that is important for translation by the host cell. The leader sequence is operably linked to the 5′ terminus of the nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide. Any leader sequence that is functional in the host cell of choice may be used.

In some embodiments, the control sequence may also be a signal peptide coding region that codes for an amino acid sequence linked to the amino terminus of a polypeptide and directs the encoded polypeptide into the cell's secretory pathway. The 5′ end of the coding sequence of the nucleic acid sequence may inherently contain a signal peptide coding region naturally linked in translation reading frame with the segment of the coding region that encodes the secreted polypeptide. For example, SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 each have signal peptide sequences (e.g., from amino acid 1 to 17 (i.e., cleaved after amino acid 17 of SEQ ID NO:4, 6, and 8) or to amino acid 18 (i.e., cleaved after amino acid 18 of SEQ ID NO:1 and 10). A mature polypeptide of the disclosure, a mature chimera polypeptide will lack the signal peptide domain (e.g., the first 1-18 amino acids of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8, or 10). Alternatively, the 5′ end of the coding sequence may contain a signal peptide coding region that is foreign to the coding sequence. The foreign signal peptide coding region may be required where the coding sequence does not naturally contain a signal peptide coding region. Effective signal peptide coding regions for bacterial host cells can be the signal peptide coding regions obtained from the genes for Bacillus NClB 11837 maltogenic amylase, Bacillus stearothermophilus alpha-amylase, Bacillus licheniformis subtilisin, Bacillus licheniformis beta-lactamase, Bacillus stearothermophilus neutral proteases (nprT, nprS, nprM), and Bacillus subtilis prsA. Further signal peptides are described by Simonen and Palva, (1993) Microbiol Rev 57: 109-137.

Furthermore, the C-terminal end of the chimera of the disclosure may comprise a carbohydrate binding module (CBM). The CBM may be contiguous with the C-terminal domain of a chimera or may be attached via a linker. Furthermore, the CBH may be heterologous to the final domain of the chimera of the disclosure.

The disclosure is further directed to a recombinant expression vector comprising a polynucleotide encoding an engineered CBH I chimera polypeptide, and one or more expression regulating regions such as a promoter and a terminator, a replication origin, etc., depending on the type of hosts into which they are to be introduced. In creating the expression vector, the coding sequence is located in the vector so that the coding sequence is operably linked with the appropriate control sequences for expression.

The recombinant expression vector may be any vector (e.g., a plasmid or virus), which can be conveniently subjected to recombinant DNA procedures and can bring about the expression of the polynucleotide sequence. The choice of the vector will typically depend on the compatibility of the vector with the host cell into which the vector is to be introduced. The vectors may be linear or closed circular plasmids.

The expression vector may be an autonomously replicating vector, i.e., a vector that exists as an extrachromosomal entity, the replication of which is independent of chromosomal replication, e.g., a plasmid, an extrachromosomal element, a minichromosome, or an artificial chromosome. The vector may contain any means for assuring self-replication. Alternatively, the vector may be one which, when introduced into the host cell, is integrated into the genome and replicated together with the chromosome(s) into which it has been integrated. Furthermore, a single vector or plasmid or two or more vectors or plasmids which together contain the total DNA to be introduced into the genome of the host cell, or a transposon, may be used.

In some embodiments, the expression vector of the disclosure contains one or more selectable markers, which permit easy selection of transformed cells. A selectable marker is a gene the product of which provides for biocide or viral resistance, resistance to heavy metals, prototrophy to auxotrophs, and the like. Examples of bacterial selectable markers are the dal genes from Bacillus subtilis or Bacillus licheniformis, or markers, which confer antibiotic resistance such as ampicillin, kanamycin, chloramphenicol or tetracycline resistance. Other useful markers will be apparent to the skilled artisan.

In another embodiment, the disclosure provides a host cell comprising a polynucleotide encoding a CBH I chimera polypeptide, the polynucleotide being operatively linked to one or more control sequences for expression of the polypeptide in the host cell. Host cells for use in expressing the polypeptides encoded by the expression vectors of the disclosure are well known in the art and include, but are not limited to, bacterial cells, such as E. coli and Bacillus megaterium; eukaryotic cells, such as yeast cells, CHO cells and the like, insect cells such as Drosophila S2 and Spodoptera Sf9 cells; animal cells such as CHO, COS, BHK, 293, and Bowes melanoma cells; and plant cells. Other suitable host cells will be apparent to the skilled artisan. Appropriate culture mediums and growth conditions for the above-described host cells are well known in the art.

The CBH I chimera polypeptides of the disclosure can be made by using methods described herein. Polynucleotides can be synthesized by recombinant techniques, such as that provided in Sambrook et al., 2001, Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 3rd Ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; and Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Ausubel. F. ed., Greene Pub. Associates, 1998, updates to 2007. Polynucleotides encoding the enzymes, or the primers for amplification can also be prepared by standard solid-phase methods, according to known synthetic methods, for example using phosphoramidite method described by Beaucage et al., (1981) Tet Lett 22:1859-69, or the method described by Matthes et al., (1984) EMBO J. 3:801-05, e.g., as it is typically practiced in automated synthetic methods. In addition, essentially any nucleic acid can be obtained from any of a variety of commercial sources, such as The Midland Certified Reagent Company, Midland, Tex., The Great American Gene Company, Ramona, Calif., ExpressGen Inc. Chicago, Ill., Operon Technologies Inc., Alameda, Calif., and many others.

Engineered enzymes expressed in a host cell can be recovered from the cells and or the culture medium using any one or more of the well known techniques for protein purification, including, among others, lysozyme treatment, sonication, filtration, salting-out, ultra-centrifugation, chromatography, and affinity separation (e.g., substrate bound antibodies). Suitable solutions for lysing and the high efficiency extraction of proteins from bacteria, such as E. coli, are commercially available under the trade name CelLytic B™ from Sigma-Aldrich of St. Louis Mo.

Chromatographic techniques for isolation of the polypeptides include, among others, reverse phase chromatography high performance liquid chromatography, ion exchange chromatography, gel electrophoresis, and affinity chromatography. Conditions for purifying a particular enzyme will depend, in part, on factors such as net charge, hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, molecular weight, molecular shape, etc., and will be apparent to those having skill in the art.

Descriptions of SCHEMA directed recombination and synthesis of chimeric polypeptides are described in the examples herein, as well as in Otey et al., (2006), PLoS Biol. 4(5):e112; Meyer et al., (2003) Protein Sci., 12:1686-1693; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/024,515, filed Feb. 1, 2008; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/027,885, filed Feb. 7, 2008; such references incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

As discussed above, the polypeptide can be used in a variety of applications, such as, among others, biofuel generation, cellulose breakdown and the like.

For example, in one embodiment, a method for processing cellulose is provided. The method includes culturing a recombinant microorganism as provided herein that expresses a chimeric polypeptide of the disclosure in the presence of a suitable cellulose substrate and under conditions suitable for the catalysis by the chimeric polypeptide of the cellulose.

In yet another embodiment, a substantially purified chimeric polypeptide of the disclosure is contacted with a cellulose substrate under conditions that allow for the chimeric polypeptide to degrade the cellulose. In one embodiment, the conditions include temperatures from about 35-65° C.

As previously discussed, general texts which describe molecular biological techniques useful herein, including the use of vectors, promoters and many other relevant topics, include Berger and Kimmel, Guide to Molecular Cloning Techniques, Methods in Enzymology Volume 152, (Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, Calif.; Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning—A Laboratory Manual, 2d ed., Vol. 1-3, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989; and Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, F. M. Ausubel et al., eds., Current Protocols, a joint venture between Greene Publishing Associates, Inc. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (supplemented through 1999). Examples of protocols sufficient to direct persons of skill through in vitro amplification methods, including the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the ligase chain reaction (LCR), Q-replicase amplification and other RNA polymerase mediated techniques (e.g., NASBA), e.g., for the production of the homologous nucleic acids of the disclosure are found in Berger, Sambrook, and Ausubel, as well as in Mullis et al. (1987) U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202; Innis et al., eds. (1990) PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications (Academic Press Inc. San Diego, Calif.) (“Innis”); Arnheim & Levinson (Oct. 1, 1990) C&EN 36-47; The Journal Of NIH Research (1991) 3: 81-94; Kwoh et al. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86: 1173; Guatelli et al. (1990) Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 87: 1874; Lomell et al. (1989) J. Clin. Chem. 35: 1826; Landegren et al. (1988) Science 241: 1077-1080; Van Brunt (1990) Biotechnology 8: 291-294; Wu and Wallace (1989) Gene 4:560; Barringer et al. (1990) Gene 89:117; and Sooknanan and Malek (1995) Biotechnology 13: 563-564. Improved methods for cloning in vitro amplified nucleic acids are described in Wallace et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,039. Improved methods for amplifying large nucleic acids by PCR are summarized in Cheng et al. (1994) Nature 369: 684-685 and the references cited therein, in which PCR amplicons of up to 40 kb are generated. One of skill will appreciate that essentially any RNA can be converted into a double stranded DNA suitable for restriction digestion, PCR expansion and sequencing using reverse transcriptase and a polymerase. See, e.g., Ausubel, Sambrook and Berger, all supra.

Appropriate culture conditions include, for example, culture medium pH, ionic strength, nutritive content, etc.; temperature; oxygen/CO₂/nitrogen content; humidity; and other culture conditions that permit production of the compound by the host microorganism, i.e., by the metabolic action of the microorganism. Appropriate culture conditions are well known for microorganisms that can serve as host cells.

The following examples are meant to further explain, but not limited the foregoing disclosure or the appended claims.

EXAMPLES

Parent and chimeric genes encoding CBH I enzymes were cloned into yeast expression vector YEp352/PGK91-1-αss and transformed into expression strain YDR483W. Parent CBH I genes featured native codon usage and were synthesized by DNA 2.0 (Menlo Park, Calif.). Five mL synthetic dextrose casamino acids (SDCAA) media starter cultures were grown overnight at 30° C. with shaking at 225 rpm, expanded into 40 mL of yeast peptone dextrose (YPD) medium and incubated for 48 hours. Culture supernatants were brought to 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride (PMSF) and 0.02% NaN₃.

Total yeast-secreted CBH I activity toward the soluble substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl lactopyranoside (MUL) was determined by adding 125 μL of culture supernatant to 25 μL of 1.8 mM MUL (Sigma) dissolved in 750 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8, incubating at 45° C. for 30 minutes and quenching with 150 μL 1 M Na₂CO₃. MUL hydrolysis rates were determined by using a microplate reader to measure sample fluorescence with excitation at 365 nm and emission at 445 nm and comparing values to a standard curve prepared with 4-methylumbelliferone (Sigma).

The T₅₀ value is defined as the temperature at which a 10-minute incubation in the absence of substrate causes loss of one-half of the activity, measured after reaction with MUL substrate, relative to a 100% activity reference sample that does not undergo the incubation. For T₅₀ assays, culture supernatants were diluted using a supernatant from a negative control YPD yeast culture not containing secreted cellulase so that approximately equivalent MUL hydrolysis rates of 1.6*10⁻⁵ mol/L/s were obtained for samples not incubated for thermal denaturation. These diluted samples were adjusted to 1 mM DTT and 125 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8. Aliquots of 125 μL were incubated for 10 minutes in a water bath across a range of temperatures bracketing the T₅₀ value. Water bath temperatures were measured using two different alcohol thermometers and observed to be consistent within 0.1° C. After cooling, 25 μL of 1.8 mM MUL in 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8 was added to the incubated sample and an unheated sample, and these were incubated in a 45° C. water bath for 90 minutes. MUL hydrolysis was determined as above, and the T₅₀ value was calculated by linear interpolation of data using Microsoft Excel. A representative T₅₀ data set is provided in Table 3.

TABLE 3 Representative T₅₀ data for parent 1 (C. ther) into parent 5 (T. emer) monomeras. Ten Min Inc. Temp (° C.) P5-T. emer P1-C. ther 15555555 51555555 55155555 55515555 55551555 55555155 55555551 DAY 1 DATA No Incubation 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 60 C. 0.83 0.50 0.88 0.79 0.97 0.65 0.82 0.66 0.74 62.5 C.   0.60 0.10 0.76 0.36 0.78 0.30 0.38 0.07 0.38 65 C. 0.11 0.01 0.32 0.04 0.40 0.04 0.00 0.00 0.06 T50 fit value 62.6 59.5 63.9 61.9 64.4 61.1 61.9 60.6 61.7 DAY 2 DATA No Incubation 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 60 C. 0.86 0.55 0.95 0.79 0.97 0.74 0.84 0.68 0.76 62.5 C.   0.64 0.17 0.76 0.35 0.90 0.13 0.45 0.05 0.47 65 C. 0.12 0.02 0.26 0.07 0.29 0.00 0.06 0.00 0.06 T50 fit value 63.0 60.1 63.9 61.9 64.1 61.0 62.2 60.6 62.1 Decimal values for each temperature point represent monomera activity retained relative to no preincubation after 10 minute preincubation at given temperature. Data are given for experiments performed on two consecutive days. T₅₀ fit values obtained using Microsoft Excel. T₅₀ values for parent 1 monomeras appear in FIG. 3. T₅₀ value given for T. emersonii (parent 5) is calculated based on average of the two below replicates and six additional T₅₀ measurements. 55555515 monomera secretion was too low to permit T₅₀ measurement.

To determine total yeast-secreted CBH I activity toward solid cellulose, 500 μL of yeast culture supernatant was incubated with 500 μL of 120 mg/mL Lattice NT microcrystalline cellulose (FMC) in 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8, for 1 hour at 4° C. in a thermal block with shaking at 1000 rpm. Samples were centrifuged at 3000 rcf for 3 minutes and washed with 1 mL of ice cold 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8, containing 1 mg/ml, BSA. Solid cellulose with bound CBH I was resuspended in 1 mL of same buffer, incubated with shaking at 37° C. for 90 minutes, and the amount of reducing sugar in the reaction supernatant was determined by Nelson-Somogyi assay.

Ni²⁺ affinity-isolated CBH I sample preparation, protein concentration measurement and SDS-PAGE analyses were performed. Post-Ni²⁺ isolation CBH I yield estimates range from 500 μg/L culture for the poorly-secreted T. aurantiacus parent CBH I to between 5 and 10 mg/L for the T. emersonii parent CBH I and most highly secreted CBH I chimeras. CBH I solid cellulose temperature activity profiles were obtained by assuming that all protein in the affinity-isolated CBH I samples was fully active CBH I and adding 4 μg to 270 μL of 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.8 containing 60 mg/mL Lattice NT cellulose. After incubation for 16 hours in a water bath at the temperature of interest, supernatant reducing sugar was determined by Nelson-Somogyi assay.

For T. emersonii CBH I circular dichroism and half-life t_(1/2) thermostability comparison experiments, metal affinity-isolated CBH I samples were treated as 100% fully active CBH I, and enzyme, substrate and buffer conditions were used (see, e.g., Voutilainen et al., Protein Eng Des Sel. 23: 69-79, 2010). Half-life assay samples in which CBH I was supplied by addition of culture supernatants received supernatant containing MUL-hydrolyzing CBH I activity approximately equal to that added to the assays performed with affinity-isolated CBH I. CBH I deglycosylation was performed using PNGaseF (New England Biolabs) per the manufacturer's instructions with a CBH I concentration of 100 μg/mL. CBH I secretion culturing of the hyperglycosylating yeast strain was performed as above with the exception that overnight starter cultures were grown in synthetic dropout-Uracil media prior to expansion into YPD.

Parent fungal CBH I enzymes. Four of the five CBH I recombination parents, from the filamentous fungi Chaetomium thermophilum (parent 1 (P1)), Thermoascus aurantiacus (P2), Hypocrea jecorina (P3) and Acremonium thermophilum (P4), were chosen on the basis of their having been overexpressed from the popular industrial cellulase secretion host Trichoderma reesei (teleomorph H. jecorina), which is important for industrial applications. The fifth CBH I (P5), from the thermophilic fungus T. emersonii, was included by virtue of its reported high thermostability. To eliminate the possibility of generating unpaired Cys residues upon recombination, residues G4 and A72 in the T. emersonii and T. aurantiacus CBH Is were changed to Cys (see SEQ ID NO:12 and 15), so that each parent CBH I catalytic domain contained 10 disulfide bonds. A sequence alignment of the five parent catalytic domains appears in FIG. 7, and the catalytic domain pairwise sequence identities are as follows:

Sequences (11:12) Aligned. Score: 69 Sequences (11:13) Aligned. Score: 61 Sequences (11:14) Aligned. Score: 71 Sequences (11:15) Aligned. Score: 64 Sequences (12:13) Aligned. Score: 66 Sequences (12:14) Aligned. Score: 73 Sequences (12:15) Aligned. Score: 81 Sequences (13:14) Aligned. Score: 63 Sequences (13:15) Aligned. Score: 66 Sequences (14:15) Aligned. Score: 70

The T. emersonii and T. aurantiacus CBH Is, which do not contain carbohydrate binding modules (CBM), were appended with the C-terminal linker and CBM from the H. jecorina CBH I, mimicking a construction previously used for heterologous expression of the T. aurantiacus CBH I. The C. thermophilum, H. jecorina and A. thermophilum parent genes featured their respective wild type linkers and CBMs. The sequences for all of the CBH I parents are provided in SEQ ID NOs: 11-15.

As shown in FIG. 8, the T. emersonii CBH I showed much higher expression than the other 4 parents in an SDS-PAGE gel. T. emersonii yeast secretion culture supernatant also contained more than three times the activity [(2.3+/−0.3)×10⁻⁴ mol/L/s] toward the fluorescent, soluble CBH I substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl lactopyranoside (MUL) than supernatant for the second most highly expressed parent, from C. thermophilum. Accurate CBH I thermostability measurements, in the form of ten-minute T₅₀ values, required a total MUL hydrolysis rate of ≧1.6*10⁻⁵ mol/L/s. Neither the H. jecorina (P3) nor the A. thermophilum (P4) parents reached this threshold. CBH Is with supernatant activity values below this level were categorized as ‘not secreted’. The T. emersonii parent had a T₅₀ (62.9+/−0.3° C.) greater than those of the C. thermophilum (59.9+/−0.3° C.) and T. aurantiacus (62.2+/−0.4° C.) parents. The relatively high stability and secretion of T. emersonii CBH I motivated choosing it as the background for screening sequence blocks from other enzymes.

SCHEMA chimera family design. The T. emersonii CBH I crystal structure (pdb 1Q9H) was used to prepare the contact map used by SCHEMA to evaluate disruption upon recombination, which is needed by RASPP for choosing the block boundaries that minimize library average disruption <E>. As crystal structures for neither a CBH I linker nor CBM are available, SCHEMA recombination was applied only to the CBH I catalytic domain. CBH I chimeras therefore contain the linker and CBM corresponding to the parent represented at block 8. An analysis of the 5-parent, 8-block family designs returned by the RASPP algorithm led us to choose the block boundaries depicted in FIG. 1. The 5⁸=390,625 chimeras in this family have <E>=20.3 and <m>=66.0, providing a desirable balance between a high number of mutations and a low number of broken contacts.

Sample chimeras for stability analysis. Fungal CBH Is are poorly secreted from the S. cerevisiae host. To maximize the fraction of sample set chimeras that provide useful data, a block screening strategy was implemented in which 32 blocks from 4 parents are substituted, one at a time, into the background of a CBH I that is secreted at relatively high levels (parent 5). The 32-member CBH I “monomera” sample set has <E>=5.9 and <m>=15.6. These are considerably lower than the average values of the 390,625 sequences in the family and are therefore expected to have a high likelihood of retaining fold and cellulase function.

The 32 monomeras were prepared by total gene synthesis. As shown in FIG. 2, 28 monomeras (88%) were secreted in functional form from S. cerevisiae. However, none of the monomeras containing substitutions at block 7, the largest block, were secreted. Substitutions at block 4 were also highly detrimental to monomera secretion. On the other hand, several of the monomeras with substitutions at blocks 2 and 5 were more highly secreted than the T. emersonii background parent. Although an inverse relationship between E and secretion for CBH II chimeras was previously observed, E is not predictive of CBH I monomera secretion (FIG. 9). The CBH I supernatant activity toward MUL as a proxy for CBH I secretion is based on the observation that Ni-NTA affinity-isolated, C-terminally His₆-tagged CBH I parents and chimeras have similar specific activities toward MUL (FIG. 10).

FIG. 3 summarizes the block stability contributions and shows that 4 block substitutions resulted in CBH I chimeras with increased T₅₀ values; the stabilizing blocks B1P1, B3P1, B5P2 and B8P2 increase the T₅₀ by between ˜0.7° C. and ˜1.6° C. Although no stabilizing blocks were obtained from the two parents that were not secreted (P3, P4), these parents did provide five neutral blocks, B1P3, B2P3, B5P3, B1P4 and B2P4. Assuming that block neutrality is independent of chimera background, these blocks can be used to increase chimera sequence diversity without reducing thermostability.

Of the 10 disulfide bonds in CBH I, 5 involve Cys residues originating from different blocks. For example, Cys135 (parent 5 numbering; see SEQ ID NO:15) of block 4 forms a disulfide bond with Cys401 of block 8, and Cys253 of block 7 is paired with Cys227 of block 6 (FIG. 1). An analysis of whether the recombination of disulfide-bonded Cys pairs was responsible for the detrimental effect on secretion and/or stability that results from the block 4 and 7 substitutions was examined. This was tested by substituting the 4-8 and 6-7 block pairs from parents 1 and 2 into parent 5. Conserving the disulfides in this way, however, this resulted in expression levels that fall between those of the monomeras containing the respective single block substitutions or are not secreted at all (Table 1). T₅₀ values for the chimeras with substitutions at blocks 4 and 8 fall between those for the respective block 4 and block 8 monomeras. These results show that C135-C401 and C227-C253 disulfide bonds containing Cys residues in blocks taken from different parents do not reduce secretion or stability relative to these blocks coming from the same parent.

The lack of secretion for block 7-substituted monomeras prevented the assignment of stability contributions to blocks at this position. Only one monomera in which B7P5 was substituted into the other four parents was secreted, where moving block 7 into parent 2, which has the highest identity (81%) to parent 5, increased expression more than fivefold and increased the T₅₀ of parent 2 by 1.5° C.

Thermostable CBH I chimera design and characterization. A set of diverse, thermostable chimeras was then designed that would also be secreted at relatively high levels. To achieve high stability, all 16 members of this set include the two most stabilizing blocks, B3P1 and B8P5. Similarly, as both B5P3 and B5P5 were observed to have significant and similar stabilizing effects, all of the designed chimeras contain one of these two blocks. As blocks 4 and 7 from parents other than T. emersonii parent 5 were found to either eliminate or markedly reduce secretion, all 16 designed chimeras feature both B4P5 and B7P5. Finally, to obtain high sequence diversity without sacrificing thermostability and/or secretion level, we incorporated a collection of 11 blocks, B1P1, B1P2, B1P3, B1P4, B1P5, B2P2, B2P3, B2P4, B2P5, B6P2 and B6P5, that were expected to be either beneficial or neutral with respect to chimera stability and secretion level.

The chimeras are thus comprised of 17 of the 40 available CBH I blocks and contain an average of 37 mutations relative to the closest parent (of 441 total residues). They differ from each other by 21 mutations on average and give representation to all five parent CBH Is. As shown in FIG. 4, all 16 of these predicted-stable CBH I chimeras in fact have T₅₀ values that are significantly greater than that of the most stable CBH I parent (from T. emersonii). Eight of the 16 thermostable chimeras have T₅₀ values that are 2 or more degrees above T. emersonii, with the most thermostable chimera, 55152552, having a T₅₀ that is higher by 3.4° C. As shown in FIG. 4, all but one of the 16 stable chimeras are secreted at levels equal to or greater than that for the second most highly secreted parent, from C. thermophilum, and 8 chimeras were secreted at levels equal to or greater than that for the most highly secreted parent, from T. emersonii.

As the attempts to substitute B7P5 into the backgrounds of the 4 other parents were successful for parent 2, the parent most identical to parent 5, B7P2 was substituted for B7P5 in the background of five thermostable chimeras. As shown in Table 4, this substitution either markedly reduced or abrogated secretion in all five cases and decreased secreted chimera T₅₀ values by an average of 2.3+/−0.8° C.

TABLE 4 Comparison of T₅₀ values and total yeast secreted activity [(mol MUL/(L · s)) × 10⁵] for B7P5 and B72 CBH I chimeras. Error bars on T₅₀ values denote extremes of two duplicates. Total yeast secreted activity are single measurements for single cultures. NS denotes total secreted activity too low to permit T₅₀ measurement. Chimera 12152252 25152252 55153252 55552252 55152252 T₅₀ (° C.) 65.3 +/− 0.1 65.0 +/− 0.1 64.4 +/− 0.2 65.6 +/− 0.7 66.3 +/− 1.0 Secreted 10.2 22.2 20.0 18.5 19.6 Activity Chimera 12152222 25152222 55153222 55552222 55152222 T₅₀ (° C.) NS 63.6 +/− 0.0 62.5 +/− 0.1 62.5 +/− 0.1 63.4 +/− 0.1 Secreted 0.3 1.6 1.9 1.9 1.9 Activity

Experiments were performed to determine whether smaller stretches of amino acids, or subblocks, lying within block 7 could be swapped in chimeric CBH Is and whether these blocks could make positive thermostability contributions. This mode of interchanging sequence between the two most identical sequences, parents 2 and 5, was continued. Six subblocks within B7P2 were selected and chosen on the basis of cloning convenience and a relatively equal distribution of the 32 mutations separating B7P2 and B7P5. As shown in FIG. 11, the six subblocks feature between 2 and 7 mutations. Table 5 shows that three of the six subblocks (C, D and E) either increase or do not reduce secretion when substituted into parent 5. Subblock C, which contains 6 mutations, was found to increase the T₅₀ of T. emersonii CBH I by approximately 1.0° C.

TABLE 5 T₅₀ values and total secreted yeast activity for subblock-substituted T. emersonii CBH I variants. Error bars on T₅₀ values denote extremes of two duplicate measurements. Subblock total yeast secreted activity [(mol MUL/(L · s)) × 10⁵] are single measurements for single cultures. T₅₀ and total secreted values for T. emersonii and means and standard deviations for 8 and 3 respective replicates. NS denotes insufficient total activity for T₅₀ measurement. Secreted Subblock Substituted T₅₀ (° C.) Activity Parent 5 (T. emersonii) 62.9 +/− 0.3 23.0 +/− 3.0 A 59.9 +/− 0.5 0.7 B 62.6 +/− 0.2 8.3 C 63.9 +/− 0.0 46.0 D 62.7 +/− 0.4 33.6 E 61.9 +/− 0.1 20.4 F 62.1 +/− 0.1 7.5

As shown in Table 2, where B7P5 containing subblock C from parent 2 is denoted by “*5” at the 7 position, this subblock improved the thermostability of all five chimeras into which it was substituted, with an average T₅₀ increase of 1.5+/−0.4° C. Furthermore, the B7P*5 chimeras are all secreted at higher levels than the corresponding B7P5 chimeras.

Cellulose hydrolysis using thermostable CBH I chimeras. Experiments there also performed to determine whether an increase in T₅₀, which is measured after thermal denaturation in the absence of substrate, corresponds to an increase in the maximum CBH I solid cellulose hydrolysis temperature. To this end yeast secretion constructs were built for the 3 secreted CBH I parents and 5 thermostable B7P*5 chimeras in which the CBH I N-terminus was appended with a His₆ tag to allow purification by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography from the components in the yeast culture medium. As shown in FIG. 12, although CBH I bands appear at the anticipated molecular weight of ˜60 kDa in the SDS-PAGE, there are also unexpected bands at ˜20 kDa. Although these samples are not sufficiently homogeneous to permit CBH I specific activity measurements, the removal of background protein and carbohydrates from the medium allows valid comparison of maximum solid cellulose hydrolysis temperatures.

As shown in FIG. 5, higher T₅₀ values are indicative of a greater ability to hydrolyze solid cellulose at elevated temperatures over a 16-hour interval. Whereas none of the parent enzymes were active at temperatures above 65° C., all five of the tested thermostable chimeras, which contain an average of 42 mutations and differ from each other by an average of 16 mutations, retained some hydrolytic activity at 70° C. The five tested thermostable chimeras all have between thirty and fifty percent lower specific activity, however, than the T. emersonii parent at 50° C. (assuming that all of the protein loaded into each reaction is active CBH I).

The Ni-NTA affinity-isolated CBH I samples are also useful for evaluating whether CBH I specific activities toward the soluble MUL substrate, measured at 45° C., are retained upon recombination. As shown in FIG. 10, the estimated specific activities of the five thermostable His₆-tagged chimeras, based on the assumption that the affinity-isolated CBH I samples are 100% pure, lie within 4×10⁻⁵ mol MUL/(L s μg CBH I) of the mean value of 2.8×10⁻⁴ mol MUL/(L s μg CBH I). These specific activities fall between the respective values of (4.3+/−0.1)×10⁻⁴, (2.3+/−0.2)×10⁻⁴, and (4.3+/−0.1)×10⁻⁴ mol MUL/(L s μg CBH I) measured for parents 1, 2 and 5. Thus the thermostable chimeras have not increased in stability at the cost of their specific activities toward the soluble MUL substrate.

The total cellulase activity secreted from yeast is relevant in consolidated bioprocess (CBP) applications, where recombinant strains of S. cerevisiae convert cellulosic biomass to fermentable simple sugars and ferment the simple sugars to biofuel in a single process step. The total solid cellulose hydrolysis activities were measured for the 5 CBH I parents and a set of 6 stable chimeras with total secreted activities toward the soluble MUL substrate that are equal to or greater than that of T. emersonii CBH I. As shown in FIG. 6, all 6 of the CBH I chimeras also exhibit more total solid cellulose hydrolysis activity than any of the parents.

While various specific embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention(s). 

1. A substantially purified chimeric polypeptide comprising at least two domains from at least two different parental cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I) polypeptides, wherein the domains comprise from N- to C-terminus: (segment 1)-(segment 2)-(segment 3)-(segment 4)-(segment 5)-(segment 6)-(segment 7)-(segment 8); wherein: segment 1 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue from about 1 or from about 18 or 19 to about x₁ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 2 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₁ to about x₂ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 3 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₂ to about x₃ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 4 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₃ to about x₄ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 5 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to about amino acid residue x₄ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 6 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₅ to about x₆ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); segment 7 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₆ to about x₇ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); and segment 8 comprises a sequence that is at least 50-100% identical to amino acid residue x₇ to about x₈ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”); wherein x₁ is residue 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, or 52 of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, or 8, or residue 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 or 53 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₂ is residue 92, 93, 94 95, 96 or 97 of SEQ ID NO:2 or 10, or residue 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, or 96 of SEQ ID NO:4, 6, or 8; x₃ is residue 127, 128, 129, 130, 131 or 132 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 125, 126, 127, 128, 129 or 130 of SEQ ID NO:4 or 6, or residue 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 or 131 of SEQ ID NO:8, or residue 123, 124, 125, 126, 127 or 128 or SEQ ID NO:10; x₄ is residue 175, 176, 177, 178, 180 or 181 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 173, 174, 175, 176, 177 or 178 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 or 179 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, or 176 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₅ is 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, or 226 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 219, 220, 221, 222, 223 or 224 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 220, 221, 222, 223, 224 or 225 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 or 222 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₆ is residue 268, 269, 270, 271, 272 or 273 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 266, 267, 268, 269, 270 or 271 of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 267, 268, 269, 270, 271 or 272 of SEQ ID NO:8, or 264, 265, 266, 267, 268 or 269 of SEQ ID NO:10; x₇ is residue 384, 385, 386, 387, 388 or 389 of SEQ ID NO:2, or residue 385, 386, 387, 388, 389 or 390 of SEQ ID NO:4, or residue 378, 379, 380, 381, 382 or 383 or SEQ ID NO:6, or residue 383, 384, 385, 386, 387 or 388 of SEQ ID NO:8 or 10; and x₈ is an amino acid residue corresponding to residue 454, of SEQ ID NO:2, residue 457 of SEQ ID NO:4, residue 458 of SEQ ID NO:6, residue 453 of SEQ ID NO:8, residue 455 of SEQ ID NO:10 or the C-terminus of the polypeptide having the sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:6, SEQ ID NO:8 or SEQ ID NO:10, wherein the chimeric polypeptide has cellobiohydrolase activity and improved thermostability, pH stability and/or expression compared to a CBH I polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8 or
 10. 2. The polypeptide of claim 1, wherein segment 1 comprises amino acid residue from about 1 or from about 18 or 19 to about x₁ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 2 is from about amino acid residue x₁ to about x₂ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 3 is from about amino acid residue x₂ to about x₃ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 4 is from about amino acid residue x₃ to about x₄ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 5 is from about amino acid residue x₄ to about x₅ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 6 is from about amino acid residue x₅ to about x₆ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; segment 7 is from about amino acid residue x₆ to about x₇ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions; and segment 8 is from about amino acid residue x₇ to about x₈ of SEQ ID NO:2 (“1”), SEQ ID NO:4 (“2”), SEQ ID NO:6 (“3”), SEQ ID NO:8 (“4”), or SEQ ID NO:10 (“5”) and having about 1-10 conservative amino acid substitutions.
 3. The polypeptide of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide is at least 60-100% identical to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 and
 34. 4. The polypeptide of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide comprises a leader sequence in operable linkage to the N-terminal amino acid.
 5. The polypeptide of claim 1, further comprising a C-terminal CBM domain comprising a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:16, 17 and
 18. 6. The polypeptide of claim 1, wherein the at least two different parental cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I) polypeptides comprise sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:2, 4, 6, 8 and
 10. 7. The polypeptide of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide has a segment structure selected from the group consisting of 55153552, 12153252, 25152252, 12152252, 55152252, 55515555, 55555551, 55515551, 55525555, 55555552, 55525552, 55555155, 55555515, 55555115, 55555255, 55555525, 55555225, 34152252 (SEQ ID NO:19), 55153552 (SEQ ID NO:20), 32153252 (SEQ ID NO:21), 55155552 (SEQ ID NO:22), 22153252 (SEQ ID NO:23), 52152552, (SEQ ID NO:24), 12153252 (SEQ ID NO:25), 45153252 (SEQ ID NO:26), 12153552 (SEQ ID NO:27), 25152252 (SEQ ID NO:28), 13152552 (SEQ ID NO:29), 12152252 (SEQ ID NO:30), 55153252 (SEQ ID NO:31), 55552252 (SEQ ID NO:32), 55152552 (SEQ ID NO:33) and 55152252 (SEQ ID NO:34).
 8. A polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide of claim
 1. 9. A vector comprising a polynucleotide of claim
 8. 10. A host cell comprising the vector of claim
 9. 11. The host cell of claim 10, wherein the host cell is a plant cell or a fungal cell.
 12. An enzymatic preparation comprising a polypeptide of claim
 1. 13. An enzymatic preparation of claim 12, further comprising a thermostabilized cellobiohydrolase class II enzymatic chimera.
 14. A method of treating a biomass comprising cellulose, the method comprising contacting the biomass with an enzymatic preparation of claim
 12. 15. A method of treating a biomass comprising cellulose, the method comprising contacting the biomass with a host cell of claim
 10. 16. A method for generating a polypeptide of claim 1 having improved activity or stability compared to a parent or class of parent polypeptides, comprising: identifying a plurality (P) of evolutionary, structurally or evolutionary and structurally related polypeptides; selecting a set of crossover locations comprising N peptide segments in at least a first polypeptide and at least a second polypeptide of the plurality of related polypeptides; selecting a parent from the plurality of evolutionary, structurally or evolutionary and structurally related polypeptides having stable functional expression; generating a plurality of chimeras comprising N−1 peptide segments from the parent and one heterologous peptide segment from one other polypeptide from the plurality of evolutionary, structurally or evolutionary and structurally related polypeptides; identifying improved chimeras having increased activity or stability and identifying the heterologous peptide segment as activity/stability-associated peptide segments in the improved monomeras; generating a sample set (xP″) of recombined, recombinant proteins comprising an activity/stability-associated peptide segments from each of the at least first polypeptide and second polypeptide, wherein x<1; measuring stability of the sample set of expressed-folded recombined, recombinant proteins; generating a plurality of chimera polypeptides comprising one or more activity/stability-associated peptide segments.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the improved chimeras are identified by performing regression analysis.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein the selecting a set of crossover locations comprises aligning the sequences of the plurality of evolutionary, structurally or evolutionary and structurally related polypeptides and identifying regions of identity of the sequences.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method comprises sequence alignment and one or more methods selected from the group consisting of X-ray crystallography, NMR, searching a protein structure database, homology modeling, de novo protein folding, and computational protein structure prediction.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein the selecting a set of crossover locations comprises: identifying coupling interactions between pairs of residues in the at least first polypeptide; generating a plurality of data structures, each data structure representing a crossover mutant comprising a recombination of the at least first and second polypeptide, wherein each recombination has a different crossover location; determining, for each data structure, a crossover disruption related to the number of coupling interactions disrupted in the crossover mutant represented by the data structure; and identifying, among the plurality of data structures, a particular data structure having a crossover disruption below a threshold, wherein the crossover location of the crossover mutant represented by the particular data structure is the identified crossover location. 